Weird Mating Rituals

Natural selection is amazing. It lets favorable traits appear in the next generation and removes unfavorable traits. Some animals have developed weird mating rituals that helps them find the best partner. Here are two animals that build and decorate elaborate structures to attract a mate.

‘The bowerbird

The bowerbird is an Australian bird. To attract females, the male bowerbirds build very elaborate structures called bowers. A bower is a thatched building, sometimes as much as 3-4 feet tall, built from twigs and sticks. To make the bower attractive to the female, the male bird collects stones, bones, and shells to decorate his bower. The bowerbird will even decorate his bower with bottle caps and other man made objects he might find. Male bowerbirds take days to build the bowers, rearranging the decorations until they are satisfied with the appearance.

When a female bowerbird finds the bower attractive, she will step inside. The male hides and tosses objects at her for a few minutes. If she stays, they will mate. But, if she tires of the object he is throwing, she will fly away and he’s left to wait for another female to find his bower attractive.

Pufferfish

Pufferfish are those cool fish that can inflate into a ball to food predators. When male pufferfish are ready to mate, they flap their fins along the seafloor to disrupt the sediment. As they are doing this, the disrupted sediment creates ornate circular patterns as much as 7 feet in diameter. Some pufferfish decorate their circles with shell fragments and sediments with different colors that they have brought from far away. Creation can take as much as 7-9 days. Female pufferfish inspect the circles and, if they are impressed, they lay their eggs inside the circle. The male then fertilizes the eggs and guard them for a few days until they hatch.

Weird Mating Rituals is one of 5 articles in the Science of Valentines Day Jigsaw activity your students will love!